


Favorite Recipe

by disillusionist9



Series: Choose Dare [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble, Ficlet, Gen, Post-War, Potions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 16:17:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7647943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disillusionist9/pseuds/disillusionist9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble #1 of 100 - Padma takes on a Hogwarts post with an interesting mentor - a notebook.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Favorite Recipe

Notes in a now-familiar handwriting filled the margins of the potions journal charmed to float at eye-level. The ink used was the same red every teacher had in a special inkpot just for marking papers.

A veritable treasure trove of journals and notebooks were waiting for Padma when she walked into to take over the position of Potions Mistress for Hogwarts. The influx of students, a baby boom after the war, swelled the class sizes to double when she was a student and required the Headmistress to take on additional professors for the different levels. Professor Patil assisted her fellow Potions Mistress Romilda Vane with the upper level students.

The potion in the cauldron before her was nearly ready, which meant it was nearly to the trickiest part. She always brewed a sample batch for her students in her free period or the night before. It always depended on the preparatory time necessary.

A smile softened her features, smoothing the creases of concentration from between her eyebrows, and she chuckled at the notes left by the deceased Professor Snape.

Originally the recipe had called for porcupine quills cut into equal inch portions with any extras discarded. Furious lines crossed out this instruction and noted that it was simply another way for "the greedy apothecaries waste perfectly good potions ingredients and line their pockets! Equal thirds of any size quill will do, tested."

She could easily imagine his hand scratching viciously across the page of the journal. He'd never been quite as vicious to the Ravenclaws as to the Gryffindors so she'd been able to appreciate his biting wit as dry humor without the scathing undertones.

Not for the first time Padma mused over how the comments on this particular brew had made it into her favorite to teach.

"Miserable imbeciles don't know the difference between red and blue tree frogs!"

"Refrain from taking seriously anything this sorry excuse for a wizard publishes."

Yes, the ghostly hand of Severus Snape helped her through the days where the students were thicker than others and certainly colored her grading style. With the last few clippings of porcupine quills stirred completely into the concoction, Padma placed a strong stasis on the brew. Once it was secure she swept from the room in an uncanny interpretation of her postmortem mentor.

**Author's Note:**

> If You Dare Challenge | #47 - Favorite Recipe | Padma & Severus | Word Count: 389  
> (posted on fanfiction.net on January 18th, 2016)


End file.
